Fractional Calculus: Some Basic Problems in Continuum and Statistical Mechanics

We review some applications of fractional calculus developed by the author (partly in collaboration with others) to treat some basic problems in continuum and statistical mechanics. The problems in continuum mechanics concern mathematical modelling of viscoelastic bodies (Sect. 1), and unsteady motion of a particle in a viscous fluid, i.e. the Basset problem (Sect. 2). In the former analysis fractional calculus leads us to introduce intermediate models of viscoelasticity which generalize the classical spring-dashpot models. The latter analysis induces us to introduce a hydrodynamic model suitable to revisit in Sect. 3 the classical theory of the Brownian motion, which is a relevant topic in statistical…